Decorating Halloween Cup Cakes at Cake Owls Bakery

                                                                Photo by Cake Owls

Last month I was invited with some fellow bloggers to a Halloween themed cupcake class at the Cake Owls cake shop in Feltham Middlesex. I was actually excited as I love cake decorating and being able to learn some new skills is always a plus.

On arrival we were greeted with prosecco and light refreshments before we started the class. The Cake Owls team had everything beautifully laid out for the class. 

There were a selection of cupcakes in various flavours, butter cream and cream cheese icing and some pre prepared decorations such as eyeballs, grave stones and chocolate trees.

After a mini demonstration by the two assistants, we were let loose to create our own ghoulish  masterpieces.

We started off with  the spider cupcake, it was interesting as everyone's spiders were totally different, some skinny, some fat, some cute and some scary. Each had its own personality.

Next we tried our hands at decorating some ghosts, they were really cute and adorable. These were the easiest of them all to decorate.

Next we had a go trying to decorate the ghoulish eyeball, it really did look very gruesome. 

The edible decorations were so realistic and perfect for Halloween.

Our next attempt was to make a gravestone and a pumpkin. The assistants showed us how to shape and make the pumpkin.

All four cakes we decorated were really nice and each with a different flavour.  At the end of the class we were able to take our creations home . 

It was a lovely afternoon and I certainly had a lot of fun and best of all I have new cake decorating skills to help me in the future.

You can find Cake Owls at:

Unit 162, The Centre, Feltham TW13 4BS

If you wish to make any purchases or book a class please use this readers special code  "SF03" to get 10% off.

Photo by Cake Owls

I was invited by cake owls to attend their class, all views are of my experience of the day.

Avocado Supper Club

Avocados also known as the alligator pear, are considered a superfood as they have lots of health benefits. The avocado is high in protein and has mono-saturated fat which is the good fat. They are low in sodium and fructose but high in potassium, and essential vitamins and minerals such as fiber, vitamin K, B5, B6 and C and foliate.  

Eating an avocado a day helps to lower the risk of heart disease, maintain healthy cholesterol levels and helps the body efficiently absorb fat soluble nutrients. It also reduces arthritis symptoms and lowers the risk of certain cancers. It helps to maintain good eye health and also promotes weight loss.

Avocados can be eaten in salads, smoothies, added to soups and can be substituted as spreads or used in baking too.

Before you eat the avocado make sure your avocado is ripe, it usually takes avocados 4 to 6 days to ripen. You can tell when they are ripe by gently pushing down on them. A ripe avocado should give a bit when you add pressure, if the avocado is hard it means it is not yet ripe. You can speed up the ripening process of the avocado by placing it in a paper bag with a banana or apple. The ethylene gas released from the apples and bananas will cause the avocados to ripen faster.

red by Avocado fruit of life and Hello Fresh Kitchens in London. 

I was unsure as what to expect but believe me, I was totally bowled over with the entire evening. Look at the amazing menu that was served at the supper club.

The evening started with a masterclass and a demonstration by Food Stylist Colette Dike of Fooddeco in the art of Avocado carving.  

To carve the rose you peel the avocado and de -stone it after which you rub it with some vinegar or lemon juice to stop it going black. 

Next you slice the avocado as thinly as possible and then lay out the slices in a long line overlapping each other. Finally starting at one end you start to roll the slices to create the rose which can then be transferred to a rice cake or a plate.

You can serve the Avocado flower as a starter, drizzled with a vinaigrette dressing and garnished with chilli flakes, poppy seeds and rose petals. 

I really enjoyed creating and carving my own avocado rose which I was rather proud of as I had not done it before.

After the masterclass, we had a chance to mingle over more avocado inspired mocktails and cocktails before we sat down to enjoy a delicious avocado themed supper at a beautifully decorated table.

The starter of sweet corn fritters, served with an avocado centre, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese drizzled with tangy dressing and sprinkled with pumpkin seeds was absolutely amazing. I really enjoyed it as it had all the flavours and textures well balanced.

The main course was spectacular, an avocado bun served with a quinoa burger, avo mayo and sweet potato fries. It was very innovative way to use the avocado itself to sandwich the burger.

The highlight of the evening was the dessert, a vegan avocado and pecan chocolate brownie served with dairy free ice cream, chocolate shavings and raspberries. It was delectable and you would not have guessed that the brownie was vegan.

The meal was delicious and I am totally inspired by the recipes and hope to make more use of avocados in my recipes.

 I was a guest at the Avocado supper club and all the views shared in this post are of my personal experience.

Pizza Making at Pizza Express

Meeting friends and catching up over a nice pizza is something that is always fun. It's even more enjoyable if you are all thrown into a room with lots of flour, pizza dough and toppings and you get to create your own pizza. This is exactly what I did at Pizza Express in Fulham Road, when group of us attended the Pizza Express Pizza making party.

The Pizza Express has recently been revamped, it has a Pizziaolo kitchen space and new bar area.
The restaurant has an exciting new décor which has new Jacobean oak stained timber wall panelling, elegant pendant lighting and comfortable banquette, booth and settle seating. The restaurant decor which is rich in colour and patterns is inspired by the artwork of De Morgan and Burchell. On warmer evenings you can dine outside as it also has a patio outside seating area under an awning that is kitted out with furniture, planters, lighting and heaters.

Before we were covered in a white cloud of flour we enjoyed some drinks, nibbles and delicious dough balls.We then ventured into the party room and watched a demonstration on how to pat, toss and roll the perfect pizza base from our chef John.

Once the demonstration was over the pizza making fun began as we practiced with some dough. There were some truly memorable moments as each of us tried to toss our pizza in the air and catch it. I am really pleased that I did win the Best Tosser Award for my pizza tossing skills. Not everyone managed to catch their pizza and there were lots of pizza bases on the floor. It was good that they were only practice pieces and we were given fresh dough to create the pizza we were going to eat.

The practice run over we set about to make our pizzas.The dough was gently patted into the pans and topped with lots of delicious toppings and mozzarella cheese. Once we had all finished our pizza masterpieces, we enjoyed more dough balls and drinks whilst our creations were baked in the oven to perfection ready for us to devour.

There was of course the option of dessert too if you can manage it. The dessert menu had some lovely desserts and drinks on offer. I finished off my meal with a cup of latte and a mini lemon tart.

The pizza making party is great for team building, corporate events and birthday parties too. A perfect way to cook and eat together and get messy. If you would like to book an adult pizza party do check out this link.

I was invited as a guest to Pizza Express pizza making party, all the opinions shared are of my experience as are all the pictures.,

Knead to Know Bread making class -Jamie Oliver Cookery School

I enjoy cooking and baking but I have not really got into bread making yet. I make bread rolls and sometimes pizza base but that is as far as my bread making skills take me. I have always wanted to create beautiful loaves of bread so when I had a chance to try out a bread making class hosted by Hotpoint and Currys PC World at the Jamie Oliver Cookery school, I did not need much persuasion to say yes.

The Jamie Oliver Cookery school is part of the Jamie Oliver restaurant and it is located in The Westfield shopping centre in Shepherds Bush. The cookery school is bright and airy and is fully kitted with all the newest kitchen equipment and Hotpoint ovens. Our lesson started with a brief introduction to the Hotpoint ovens that we were going to use in the kitchens. As all new electrical equipment, oven too have come along way. The new Hotpoint ovens have a multi flow technology that distributes heat evenly so everything in the oven will cook evenly, this is an important factor in baking especially bread.

Next we watched a demonstration by the resident chef to make the bread dough for the bread rolls and Focaccia bread.We learnt the key skills of bread making such as knocking, kneading, proving and shaping the dough. These skills are of utmost importance in creating the perfect loaf.

I  realised whilst attempting to make my own bread rolls and Focaccia bread that baking bread is actually very messy but at the same time extremely therapeutic and a great way to unwind. The best bit is that the kitchen smells heavenly and the taste of hot bread straight out of the oven is absolutely delicious.

I was rather pleased with my bread rolls and Focaccia bread, although I did learn that if you add too many pumpkin seeds they can burn!!!!I am rather proud at my plaiting skills demonstrated in the picture below.

As the saying goes "the proof of the pudding is in the eating" this we did as we enjoyed our hot freshly baked bread rolls, served with a lovely cheese fondue and roasted pumpkin soup made at Jamie Oliver's Kitchen.

The whole bread making session was excellent and I have definitely come home with much more confidence at attempting to bake bread. If you are keen to learn how to bake bread or just need to boost your confidence than you can book classes at the Jamie Oliver school. You can also check out the recipes for the Rosemary Focaccio and the Roasted Pumpkin soup at the Currys Tech Talk Blog

I was invited to the bread making class by Currys PC World  and Hotpoint. All the views expressed in this post are my own as are all the photos.

Roof Top Barbecue with John Lewis.

The month of May has brought so much rain that my longing for a spell of dry weather is growing intensely. I know that rain is good for farmers and the gardens and the soil etc but I do hate wet weather and I can't wait for a proper summer to emerge. I love being outdoors and relish alfresco dining so when John Lewis invited me to their recent roof top barbecue, I jumped at the chance all along keeping my fingers and toes crossed that the sun shines on the day. As if by magic my request was fulfilled as the evening turned out bright and sunny and warm with not a sign of a raindrop!! The venue a film studio -Brunswick studious with a terrace garden set in residential area of Kilburn was perfect and really quaint.

The barbecue was organised to showcase John Lewis's finest electric and gas barbecues and we all had a wonderful opportunity to test them out. Our chef for the evening was non other than Ed Smith from Rocket and Squash, a lawyer turned chef who has recently launched his cook book "On the side" which has a collection of 140 side dishes. Ed showed us how to "burn" food on the barbecue!!!! I think he really meant how to char. 
I loved the electric and gas barbecues, but If you have a small garden like I have and don't have enough space to have these beautiful full size barbecues there are smaller tabletop barbecues available for smaller spaces like these portable grills  from Globo Surf.

We watched a demo of beetroot and red onions being char grilled and then served with a lovely dill and feta dressing. This followed by char grilled leeks and spring onions and baked butternut squash and sweet potatoes. The leeks were served with a romesco sauce made from char grilled red peppers and almonds. Ed also barbecued some lamb for the non vegetarians.

Ed showed us that barbecue food does not have to be boring and all you need to do is be a little more imaginative with your ingredients. With this thought in mind we split into groups, mainly vegetarian and non vegetarians and created our own dishes from all the lovely produce that John Lewis had provided.

With three other foodie friends, Jagruti from jagrutiscookingodyssey, Manjiri from travelsfortaste and Lisa Moore we set about making our two dishes. Jagruti and I concentrated on the savory dish of Barbecued Sweet corn with Roast pepper and Mint salsa whilst Manjiri and Lisa created a sweet dish Smoky-n-Crunchy BBQ Pineapple. 

The other teams created some skewers of vegetables and lamb, roasted sweetcorn and sweet potato mash, sweet potato wedges served with a lovely creamy dip and a dessert of baked apples made on the barbecue served  with vanilla ice cream.

All our creations were photographed by Charlie Richards who is the photographer for the John Lewis Magazine. Once the photo shoots were over, we all tucked into the lovely barbecued feast over lots of chit chat and prosecco. The evening ended with gifts of beautiful signed copies of Ed's book.

You can find the recipe for the Barbecued Sweet Corn and Roasted Tomato Salsa with mint dressing recipe in my next post.
I would like to thank  John Lewis for inviting me to this lovely event, it most certainly brightened the rainy month of May. All the opinions and views expressed in this post are my own as are all the photographs.

Cooking up a curry with Tefal Ingenio

I spend a lot of time in my kitchen as I really enjoy cooking. However to get good results its important to have the right equipment and tools in the kitchen. For me more than anything else in my kitchen, I need to have good quality pots and pans. For many years now I have equipped my kitchen with Tefal range. I find that the quality of the pans and their non stick finishes allow me to cook food evenly and healthily using very little oil.

I am a big pan of Tefal so recently when I was invited to a Cookery master class hosted by Tefal to test out their Tefal Ingenio pans at L'atelier des Chefs I was really excited.

The beauty of these pans is that  they feature  a special  non-stick coatings and patented Thermo-Spot technology that lets you know when the pan has reached optimum cooking temperature.



*Photo supplied by Tefal

Furthermore the pans have a detachable handle allowing you to place them in the oven or fridge . All the pans also come with an additional hermetic Ingenio lid  that can be used on the pans if you want to cover and store food in the fridge.
For easy storage all the handles are detachable making it easy to stack the pans so that they will fit into the smallest storage space.



At the masterclass we were able to put to test the Tefal Ingenio range of pans. I found the pans really lightweight but at the same time sturdy.

                *Photo supplied by Tefal

We split into two groups and after a demo from our chef for the day, we started preparing our ingredients for our feast of Roti, Green Coriander Chutney, Tandoori marinated Chicken and Paneer Skewers and a Karahi Okra and Potato curry.

We  made Tandoori marinated Chicken and Paneer Skewers for starters. Aromatic spices were roasted in the Ingenio Pan and then ground to a powder in a pestle and mortar. The ground spice was added to yoghurt and this marinade was used to flavour the paneer and chicken. Once they had absorbed the flavours the chicken and paneer were threaded on skewers and pan cooked before finally finishing them in the oven.

Our next dish was the Karahi Okra and Potato curry, a delicious potato and okra curry in a thick onion and tomato based curry sauce. After sauteing the garlic and onions, we added finely chopped peppers, tomatoes and spices, together with the potatoes. The curry was cooked for 10 minutes after which we added pan sauteed okra and garnished with freshly chopped coriander leaves.

To  accompany the curries we made rotis , an Indian flat bread. After making a dough of flour and water, it was left to rest. Once ready it was rolled into round circular rotis and roasted in the Ingenio pan. The rotis were smeared with butter to add softness and extra flavour.

Finally we made a coriander chutney to go with the skewers. The meal prepared we were able to sit and enjoy the food with a glass of wine.

Cooking with the Tefal Ingenio pans was really a good experience. The masterclass was really fun and extremely enjoyable. As they say many hands make light work, this certainly was the case as the whole team worked really well together to create the most delicious and mouth watering feast.

If you like the sound of this class, you too can experience it at L'atelier des Chefs. It would make the perfect Christmas present  for a foodie friend or family member. You can use this 10% Off promo code "TEFAL10"   which is valid on their 60min, 90min and 2hr classes.

This post is in collaboration with Tefal, all views, opinions expressed are of my own experience. All photos taken at the event are my own except the two product photos that were courtesy of Tefal.